NMCA LSX Shootout - The Fastest LS-Powered Cars In The World

Think your '98 Camaro is fast? We guarantee that these guys are faster. They all showed up at the world's first LSX shootout just to prove it. Were you there? Elvis was.

The whole scheme was hatched by the guys at the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) as a way to welcome engine swappers and brutal Gen III-powered Camaro and Firebird builders to the world of heads-up drag racing. The really fast guys can run in either the LSX Drag Radial class where nitrous, turbos, and superchargers are permitted or the All-Motor class where you can run up to 470 inches before you earn weight-break penalties. There is also a True Street Challenge for racers who alreadycompete in the NMCA True Street class that doubles the winnings in any category with Gen III (LS) power or for any other class racer who thinks he can drive his car on the street. For the weekend guy, there's even a judged car show. The first-ever show was held in conjunction with the NMCA Finals in Memphis, Tennessee.

The greatest reward aside from the cash is the complete LS7 engines, blocks, trophies, and jackets that are given away to the winners by GM Performance Parts. So if you have a Gen III LS-powered anything and you'd like to plant tire with the fastest guys in the world, check out fasteststreetcar.com for rules and info on next year's event. Maybe you'll see us there

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LSX All-Motor ShootoutIt's no surprise that the all-motor king owns his own machinist's school. Judson Massingill's '99 Camaro SS is powered by a 427-inch Gen III with a C5-R block and runs low 9s at 152 mph on the motor. As part of the curriculum at the School of Automotive Machinists, Judson and his students like to put together race cars. For a while they were competing in the NMCA EFI class and the occasional LS1 shootout, but they stowed the car after getting into Mustangs. When the LSX shootout came along, they yanked the LS6 engine and built a 925hp replacement. The car qualified at 9.04 at 151 mph and made Jud and the gang the fastest qualifier by a full 0.10.

Cam: It has older solid-roller Pro Stock lobes on a Comp Cams grind with 285/302 at 0.050 with 0.497/0.460 lobe lift, a 114-degree LDA, and crazy 1.95-inch rocker arms.

Induction: The sheetmetal is from Beck Engineering, and the throttle body is from FAST. The fuel system is run by a BigStuff3 system.

Spark: The thinking was, why not use a beltdrive distributor and only one coil? Pro Stock cars make 1,500 hp with the same setup, and the Camaro is only making 925

Transmission: Jud pops the clutch at 6,500 rpm, then pulls the levers on a Jerico four-speed. "I despise automatics," he says. "It's a lot more fun with a clutch and the Hurst shifter and all that stuff."

Rearend: 9-inch Moser pumpkin 514 ring- and-pinion.

LSX Drag Radial ShootoutOne of the brutal cars in the Drag Radial class was Mike Brown's '98 Pontiac Trans Am. Even though the car is new for the season, Mike is no newbie to turbo racing. His first ride was a twin-turbocharged '99 convertible Trans Am that started out running 12s, then 10s, and so on until he was running 9s with a stock bottom end. He retired that car for a faster '02 Trans Am collector's edition (in bright yellow!) and put out a string of 8-second runs using the now-famous backward truck manifold trick. At the Memphis show, Mike ran the car in True Street Challenge and managed to drive the 30 miles with no issues, win the King of True Street crown, then run his first 7-second pass. It was a pretty good weekend for the dudes in Brown's pit.

Tech NotesWho: Mike BrownWhat: His '98 Pontiac Trans Am is the third turbo Gen III-powered car he has owned.

Speed: The car ran a fastest 7.91 at 177 mph with a 1.26 60-foot in Orlando at the World Street Nationals.

Block: The block is an ERL Performance-prepped LS1 with a 4.080-inch bore assembled by Wheel to Wheel Powertrain.

Rotator: It has a 4-inch stock LS7 crank with Howard's steel rods and Wiseco pistons that makes about 8.5:1 compression.

Sump: He is using the factory LS7 oiling system and dry sump, with a reservoir from Peterson. "It's a cheap dry-sump setup," says Mike.

Cam: This is actually a fairly small Comp Cams hydraulic roller with around 242 duration with 600 lift. It's really a split-duration grind, but racers never give up the cam specs.

Turbo: It's a 101mm hybrid from Precision Turbo that makes 26 psi of boost on this combo.

Induction: The manifold is an Edelbrock Victor single-plane EFI manifold with a FAST throttle body and a turn from intakeelbow.com. Brown and his buds built all the parts using pre-bent stuff from Burns Stainless, chopping it and taping it together, then carting all the parts to Quick Rev Performance to get the aluminum parts welded.

Fuel: The pump is a MagnaFuel 600 EFI pump, and the regulator is from Aeromotive. The mill uses 150-pound injectors powered by a BigStuff3 system.

Spark: It's using stock truck coils with a stock 24x crank trigger wheel. Mike says that the later crank trigger with more teeth is more for emissions control and the resolution gets a little blurry on a race car.

Transmission: It has a 4L80E from Rossler Transmissions out of Girard, Ohio. It's a street car after all. There's also a Rossler transbrake and converter. As for the stall speed, it's hard to pinpoint that with a transbrake and a turbo-you can spin it as hard as you want.

Rearend: The rearend is a Moser 9-inch with 350:1 gears and a spool.

Suspension: The front suspension is from BMR, a tubular K-member and A-arms that are all bolt-in stuff. The rear has BMR tubular lower control arms and an Xtreme torque arm, Panhard, and sway bar.

True Street ChallengeIt wasn't all late-model F-bodies at the show. J.D. Lawson showed up in his twin-turbo '70 Nova that engine builder Jim Voyles slapped together (their words) to compete in the True Street class. What make this car vicious are the twin turbos and the street demeanor. To qualify for the True Street class, racers must drive the car for 30 miles through nearby towns without a total meltdown. The Nova pulled it off with 1,000 hp under the hood. This car was designed to go fast, and as J.D. puts it, "We might want to drive this thing to Wal-Mart on Saturday night. It's just for fun."

Tech NotesWho: J.D. Lawson is the owner and Jim Voyles from Earth Motors is the builder.What: '70 Chevy Nova

Speed: With a heat-soaked engine and intercooler from a 30-mile drive, it went 9.83 at 139 mph.

Block: The base for this combo is a 6.0L block from an '02 Chevy van. It came from a fleet of vehicles J.D. uses at his company.

Rotator: The 6.0L uses an Eagle 4.00-inch stroke crank and Scat 6.125-inch H-beam rods. To take on the boost, the compression ratio is 8.3:1 courtesy of a set of JE 28cc dished pistons. It was assembled knowing they would hit it with a turbo.

Heads: The heads are L92s from an '07 Chevy truck. Jim ordered them from Scoggin-Dickey after he saw our article in the May '07 issue of Car Craft.

Cam: The Cam Motion hydraulic roller has 240/233 duration at 0.050 and 0.568/0.527 lift on a 115-degree LDA.

Induction: The intake is a stock GM L78, and the turbos are Precision 67 GTQs producing 18 pounds of boost. The plumbing was hand-fabbed with 3.5-inch exhaust tubing. There is a 7-gallon tank in the trunk for the intercooler.

Fuel: It has an Aeromotive 1000 fuel pump and boost-referenced pressure regulator.

Spark: The ignition is stock with the coil packs and a BigStuff3 system controlling the fuel maps and the ignition curves.

Transmission: The Nova uses a TH400 with a 3,000 Mark Bowler converter and a transbrake.

Rearend: The rearend is a stock 12-bolt with a spool, 3.73:1 gears, and Moser axles.

Suspension: It is narrowed and uses QA1 coilovers and ladder bars. The car is in the low 9s on 315/60R15 M/T Drag Radials.